By Nike Oluwole
Bringing
forth children into the world is not an easy task. Carrying the
pregnancy for nine months with the attendant inconveniences: morning
sickness, nausea, back pain, vomiting, insomnia, swollen and painful
feet, loss of appetite or too much of it, weakness of the body,
restlessness, among others, and then, the D-day of delivery which is
like all the nine months’ inconveniences rolled into one excruciating
moment, are quite a feat.
Any
woman who gives birth to a child can be said to have passed through the
valley of the shadow of death. And sadly, that valley has claimed the
lives of many in their attempt to fulfill their God-given mandate to
multiply and replenish the earth. That is why it is totally
incomprehensible that some women who have come out of the deadly valley
alive can afford to be very careless with the children they suffered so
much to bring into the world.
I
read a report in one of the dailies the other day about a mother of
four (three boys and one girl) in Ajamimogha community in Warri, Delta
State, who locked up her children inside her one room apartment and went
with the keys to a night party. And the unexpected happened. The
apartment caught fire in mysterious circumstances! As God would have it,
the eldest child managed to save two of his siblings through the
window, but was unable to rescue the last child. The poor boy was
consumed by the raging fire which also destroyed everything the woman
had in that house. The middle-aged woman, simply identified as Sisi
Mary, returned from her social escapade in the morning, and when she saw
what had happened to her son and properties, she collapsed and was
rushed to a nearby clinic where she regained consciousness.
How
on earth could a woman lock up her children in a room and go with the
keys to an all-night party? How could she tell what could happen that
night which would require the wisdom of an adult to handle? All forms of
evil are known to occur in the nights. If it wasn’t fire, it could have
been an armed robbery attack or some other evil which would require the
woman to quickly do something to save herself and her children. Some
children could have nightmares or suffer spiritual attacks in their
dreams in the night, and their mothers, upon hearing them make some
strange sounds, or seeing them turn uncomfortably in their sleep, would
begin to pray, covering them with the blood of Jesus or saying whatever
prayer of protection taught by their faith.
There
are also times that children become ill suddenly at nights, having high
temperature and other symptoms of fever or other ailments, which
require immediate medical attention either by rushing the child to the
hospital or administering relevant drugs available in the house. But if
the woman is not there, how can she help her children at those critical
moments? For a woman to leave her children all by themselves at those
unholy hours is nothing but an act of irresponsibility.
One
other strange thing happened recently which left me wondering just how
negligent some mothers can be. My family and I were coming to Abuja city
from Kubwa, one of the satellite towns around the city centre, and
somewhere between the Gwarimpa Bridge and the Life Camp roundabout, we
suddenly saw a man standing in the middle of the road from some distance
and facing us directly, waving frantically to stop us. There was a
small ‘object’ on the road in front of him. Looking at it from that
distance, the ‘thing’ looked like a tuber of yam or something of the
sort. But then we soon noticed that the ‘thing’ was moving, so, we
really couldn’t place what exactly it was. As we drew nearer, however,
we were shocked to our bones to discover that that ‘object’ or ‘thing’
was actually a baby girl crawling on the express road! The man who
stopped us in desperation was a taxi driver who had sighted the baby and
miraculously missed crushing her. He packed his taxi by the roadside
and ran to pick up the baby to save her life. He didn’t even wait to
close his door as we saw it ajar with passengers in the vehicle when he
was picking up the baby. That baby narrowly escaped being crushed by us
or other motorists on that usually busy expressway. The traffic was not
so heavy that day, so, everyone was on high speed.
Unfortunately,
we had two young ladies in the car that we were rushing to Transcorp
Hilton Hotel for a competition, and they were running late already, so
we couldn’t wait to follow-up the case. In fact, the journalist in me
was troubled throughout that day for my inability to do a follow-up. We
probably would have met the mother of that child whom the Good Samaritan
driver went on to try to locate. We looked briefly round the area and
there was no one in sight. Even the construction site nearby was
deserted that Saturday morning, apparently because it was a sanitation
day in the Federal Capital Territory. So, where exactly did that baby
crawl out from?
Our
guess was that she must have crawled out of a shed somewhere in that
vicinity when the mother was not watching. It didn’t look like the
mother abandoned her by the roadside because women who abandon babies
normally do that under the cover of darkness. They wouldn’t do it in
broad daylight to avoid being spotted by passers-by. And if she was
abandoned before daylight, she would have been crushed or picked up long
before we got there at about 11.00 a.m. That also ruled out the
possibility of her being abandoned by the roadside by kidnappers whose
attempt to use her for rituals failed. They would have done that before
daybreak for fear of being apprehended, and the child would not be on
that road by 11.00 a.m. when we were passing.
Most
certainly, therefore, the mother was careless and the baby just crawled
away into a danger zone. If God had not intervened, that child’s life
would have been terminated just like that, and for her to have died in
that gruesome manner would have been unpardonable. Mothers should take
note of the fact that we are custodians of the children that God gave
us. We must, therefore, protect and care for them. We are not only to
bring them into this world, we are also to be responsible for their
wellbeing, at least until they can stand on their own. Every mother will
be accountable to God someday on how she cared for the children He gave
her. So, let us demonstrate a high sense of responsibility as we
perform the onerous task of motherhood.
(First Published on May 12, 2010 in the SUMMIT Newspaper)
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